failing docker run ImportError: libexpat.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[soxofaan]

deploy of latest docker images seem to be failing with

ImportError: libexpat.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[soxofaan]

minimal reproduction:

docker run --rm -it python:3.11-slim-bookworm /bin/bash
...
root@a3dc5e1dc008:/# python -m pip install fiona
...
Successfully installed ... fiona-1.10.1
...
root@a3dc5e1dc008:/# python -c "import fiona"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/fiona/__init__.py", line 42, in <module>
    from fiona._env import (
ImportError: libexpat.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

staying below fiona 1.10 seems to work however

...
root@a3dc5e1dc008:/# python -m pip install 'fiona<1.10'
...
Successfully installed fiona-1.9.6
... 
root@a3dc5e1dc008:/# python -c "import fiona; print(fiona)"
<module 'fiona' from '/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/fiona/__init__.py'>

[soxofaan]

reported upstream to fiona repo:

• ImportError: libexpat.so.1 with fiona>=1.10 Toblerity/Fiona#1480

[soxofaan]

with fiona<1.10 quickfix from 8f1cd37 it seems to work again

[soxofaan]

another solution that works with 1.10.1 is installing libexpat1 package first

root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# python -m pip install -U 'fiona==1.10.1'
root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# apt-get update
root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# apt-get install libexpat1
root@c4ab4a8d0a92:/# python -c "import fiona"
# doesn't fail

I'd await response on Toblerity/Fiona#1480 to see what is most future proof solution

[soxofaan]

ok so it seems that explicitly installing libexpat1 is the better way forward -> d810c0c